same here I feel like they have made basses for awhile (some weird mandela effect is going on here)

From what I could find, they first started producing bass guitars since 2019 at least. So still relatively new to the scene.

@@arrell they are awesome Basses I use my GV5 in a Sepultura tribute band and it really cuts through the mix and the guys like the sound of my markbass more than my Sadowsky metro express and my Solar AB2.4AN.

Basswood is great honestly, lots of much more expensive basses use it (Musicman Bongo for example). It’s still solid and will probably save your shoulder a bit

@@kingdeedee I get that and I have had basses and guitars made from basswood and they still sound great but for me when I try a bass or guitar I base my decision on how comfortable it is for me to play but to counteract the weight and take the edge off I always use a 3" padded guitar strap which makes things so much more enjoyable.

@@rossscott5357 true a nice strap makes a massive difference as well

Basswood is pretty meh. There's 2 kinds: real basswood from a Linden Tree and fake basswood from a Chinese bush. The real stuff is pretty mellow, like mahogany but without the sweetness or complexity of sound. The Chinese bush stuff can get clear into the hyper-bright territory, but it also lacks complexity. The main issue, 'tho, is that it's soft. The bodies tend to warp over time and you wind up with more and more shims in the neck. It is lightweight, so it's not so bad for a bedroom bass but it's softness makes it less than ideal for road work.

Basswood just results in neck dive. It's too light. I hate it. I don't care about toan or any of that jerking.

@@jomamma1750 nonsense If your guitar is warping over time it's because the wood wasn't dried properly. Hardness is a measure of how easy it is to dent a piece of wood Tensile strength measures how it deforms under tension Tension would cause the wood to bend slightly (which is why necks have truss rods), but it would bend to a point and stay at that point as long as it was under tension, it wouldn't continue to warp over time Also a guitar body is such a substantial piece of wood that the tension it's under just isn't enough for it to change shape to any degree that you'd notice So again if you've got a guitar that's changing shape over time, it's because of the woods moisture content, it has nothing to do with the mechanical properties of that species of wood

@benford1726 Your "theory" is pure B.S. First of all: These are basses, not guitars. Average string tension is well over 200 pounds of weight. Trad Labella .056 flatwounds are 260 lbs, for example. I have 2 old Japanese plywood bodied basses, both of which are warped so badly that I had to cut neck SPACER PLATES and use longer neck bolts to get the string height correct. I have 6, yes, 6 basswood bodied basses and ALL of them have shimmed necks. The oldest are up to a FULL DEGREE. You are 100% incorrect.

@benford1726 Hey, look, my first response made it past the censorship program after all, and it only took 9 minutes. I'll leave the second attempt up here as well, because why not? Then Riddle me this, genius, why are both plywood bodies of my vintage Japanese Basses warped so badly that I had to cut spacer plates and lengthen the neck bolts to get the string height correct? And why do all 6, yes all 6 of my basswood bodied basses have shims in them? And why do I keep having to add shims as time goes by on my bass wood bodied basses? I don't have to do this on my Ash, Alder, Maple or my Mahogany bodied basses. Only soft basswood or plywood. Could it be those materials can't handle 200+ lbs of string tension and keep their shape over time? 2+2 = 4 Genius.....

China, with final inspection in Italy

No they haven't, the Gloxy launched about 2 years ago or so, I think it was shown in previews about a year before that. Markbass only started making instruments I think about 4 or 5 years ago - that's when they sent me my first one.

No offense to your luthier but how does fret material cause the strings to go dead? In general the deadening of strings is caused by skin and oils getting into the the windings, which fret material shouldn't effect. By that logic would flat wounds age faster on that bass?

You might want to find a new luthier mate

@@dragostego I know man, I try to explain better: there was a strange "oil" coming out of the frets. Yeah, for real. I know, it was weird as no other things in my life. And that explains why the strings were so "oily" every time I picked up my bass 😐. I hope that the explanation is a bit more clear now. In every case, I don't blame Mark Bass for that: a bad stock of products can happen for every company and Mark Bass is still a great company. In fact, once the seller sent back both basses MB noticed immediately that there was something strange on them, so they have been immediately replaced. (replacements for the seller have been done so quickly because here we are in Italy and MB is an italian company) The new basses arrived in the shop were perfect and without any issue, the only reason because I still kept my Thunderbird was due to the fact that I learned from myself one big, important thing: I'm not a Jazz Bass guy at all. But basses sounded very, very good and electronics were excellent even if boosted at max. So, despite my weird first experience with them, I seriously recommend them.

@@jamesthomas2776 nope, he's one of the greatest luthiers of my region, seriously. I gave a more specific response to the other user.

Agreed

1. They’re usually quite overpriced for no other reason than brand name 2. This has a pretty rare electronics setup (vol vol tone + bass mid treb) which imo is the best and it’s a shame more basses don’t use it (definitely not Fender) 3. Fender is very traditional and doesn’t really change they’re formula that often (and it’s usually not that great when they do) so a lot of people find Fender basses boring 4. Some people just dont like fender

Lol Fender uses the same bridge on $10,000 custom shops 😂. I’m cool with it though since if I really want something better the screw configuration is the same as majority of aftermarket bridges so lots of options to upgrade later

Basswood is fine, it's not like anyone's using it for fretboards where you need a harder wood Janka hardness is a measure of how easy it is to put a dent in it Basswood is plenty strong enough to make guitars from they just might look a bit more beaten up after years of abuse

Everyone knows if the headstock isn’t good. The bass can’t sound good. 😅

Everyone also knows it’s not just the sound, it’s an instrument of creative expression, and how it feels, and how it looks, also inspires the performer!

Lots of people now like the Sire headstock design especially as this brand has become extremally popular. Fender headstock is good but now so boring and copy catted. I would think Markbass would not have just been another copy of Fender basses. I wonder who makes them for Markbass and where they are manufactured.

Sires headstock is something from a boat, they should really change that...

It looks like a shoe! Guess it'll be good for playing sole.